The present invention relates to devices and a method for biometric authentication by means of reference data stored in a memory of a portable data carrier.
Devices and methods for biometric authentication are known and include e.g. the evaluation of unique features such as retina, iris, speech, facial features, finger-prints, signatures with detection of the dynamics during signing, etc. Known methods for biometric authentication have been hitherto limited in their spread above all by the high prices for the sensors used for detecting the biometric features. However, new developments have made sensors available, e.g. fingerprint sensors made of semiconductor materials, which allow cost-effective realizations.
For biometric authentication methods to make their final breakthrough with respect to more widespread use, however, there is a need for standardized generation of reference data or standardization of the reference data for the particular biometric features used for authentication. Different suppliers of methods and devices for biometric authentication have hitherto used algorithms for generating the reference data which normally lead to different reference data which are not interchangeable. This limits the employability of biometric methods to the supplier's particular system.
The problem of the present invention is therefore to provide devices and a method for biometric authentication which are universally employable and not limited to a certain system.
This problem is solved by the features of the independent claims.
The invention starts out from the consideration that the storage of several sets of biometric reference data increases the likelihood of the evaluation of at least one set of stored biometric reference data being possible, so that the desired system-independent authentication is attained. This permits the desired wide spread of biometric authentication.